The Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey was published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Works Progress Administration of Illinois. The purpose of the project was to translate and classify selected news articles that appeared in the foreign language press from 1855 to 1938. The project consists of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities of Chicago.

Illinois Staats-Zeitung -- November 01, 1871

At the corner of Wabash Avenue and Peck Court a house of worship is situated. About a year ago the house had been changed from a church into a synagogue. Last Saturday it saw within its walls a curious gathering. Dr. Chronik gave a sermon of penitance that was worthy of the world-historic event that formed its theme. Among those present were many members of Mount Sinai Community whose synagogue was destroyed by the conflagration. Many of them had stood at the top of the business world before the Fire. Now they must begin over again on the lowest rung of the ladder.

It was an immensely difficult task. Dr. Chronik showed himself equal to it. He did not change his well-known viewpoints; on the contrary, he lifted his audience up to them with a colossal exertion. He saw in the great conflagration, not a divine punishment for sinners; he did not inject the elementary forces from the outside into the "moral" aspect of the conflagration. "The 2ethical meaning of the catastrophe lay, first of all," said Dr. Chronik, "in the fact that it opens our eyes and irresistibly tells us that we did not use the material goods which we received in so large a measure, and that we neglected the spiritual for the material. We have been unworthy administrators of the goods entrusted to us. This feeling embittered our loss." This part of the sermon was executed brilliantly. It should be heeded not only by Israelites. We regretted that Dr. Chronik did not dwell upon this theme longer. For the same reason we would regret if, at this moment, when a "new departure" has to be taken by all of us--a spiritual one at that--Dr. Chronik, a man and a knight of the spirit, should be lost to our city. May we, just now, be spared such a loss!

At the corner of Wabash Avenue and Peck Court a house of worship is situated. About a year ago the house had been changed from a church into a synagogue. ...

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Illinois Staats-Zeitung -- December 23, 1871

The first report of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society contains a tabulation of the 18,478 families according to nationalities who up to November 18 had received aid. The word 'nationality' is not to be understood in the passport sense of the word, but as belonging to a certain stock. Englishmen, as such, are separated from Scotch, Irish, Wallisians and Canadians. Poles are not counted as Russians, Prussians or Austrians, even though there exists no Polish state. Spaniards are not separated from Spanish Creoles, and Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are summed up as Scandinavians. Native Americans of black skin are called Africans, while Bohemians are enumerated as such, not as Civleithanic Austrians. Against these classifications nobody has raised any protest. But fate so willed it, that forty-three families are designated as "Jewish," and immediately a Mr. Philipp Stein creates havoc in the Chicago Tribune. He says:

"The Jews once were a nation, but everybody knows they long since ceased to be one. A nation is a totality of a people bound together by a common language and common customs..... The Jews in the last two centuries have 2uniformly adopted the language and the customs of the peoples among whom they live. In England they are Englishmen; in Germany, Germans; in America, Americans..... The differentiating quality is their religion. It is not the first time in the history of our city that the error to which I take exception has been committed."

Nay, and it is not the first time either that we have to take exception to the error on which the intended correction is based. Mr. Stein desires that the Jews should have ceased to be a special nationality (Stammesgenossenschaft), but he errs if he thinks that what he wishes is already a fact. It is even in France, Germany, England and America only very partly true.....And is the Jew in Bucharest a Rumanian, In Constantinople a Turk, in Belgrade a Serb, and in Valparaiso a Creole? He does not dream of it. The forty-three families in the tabulation who are classified as Jews called themselves Jewish. Does Mr. Stein expect the young secretary, who records the statements of the aid seeker in the lists, to correct these statements from ethnological, national, religious viewpoints?..........

The English word "nation" and the German word "nation" are far from being completely synonymous. In English "nation" means a political unit that may 3comprise very divergent ethnological types. In this sense France is a nation. Even Turkey in spite of its inextricable jumble of peoples is a nation. In the German language, however, the concept of "nation" conveys the idea of identical descent.....Mr. Stein's protest has been written in English, but thought out in German....

The Jews have ceased to be a nation, but are a separate nationality; i.e., they still are a special "Stammesart" (stock) and will remain so until the differentiating physiological characteristics [will have become either obliterated entirely or otherwise diluted by intermarriage.]

The first report of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society contains a tabulation of the 18,478 families according to nationalities who up to November 18 had received aid. The word ...

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Illinois Staats-Zeitung -- December 25, 1871

Thirty or forty Jewish families are announced among the 18,478 who are being assisted by the Relief and Aid Society. These are mostly Slavic Jews, because German Jews consider themselves usually as Germans and have become more or less accustomed to regard their religion as a personal household affair and not a national barrier. Jews who have immigrated to Chicago from Germany also consider themselves Germans. The Polish, Hungarian and Bohemian Jews, on the other hand, will surrender themselves to Germanism only if the German-Americans can exert sufficient attraction on this peculiarly tenacious race. It will certainly be more advantageous for the Germans to strengthen their power through such recruiting than to lose, in this country, what they had already gained in Central Europe. It is precisely the wholesale trade which in Chicago is by far too little in German hands, and, if the Jews here feel themselves rebuffed by the Germans, they will educate their children to be Anglo-Americans; the result will be a de facto loss for the German cause.

(This little piece might owe its existence to some polite protest by Dr. Chvonik against the long article on the matter of the forty-three Jewish families on December 23. The emphasis is slightly shifted from the underscoring of differences, to the desire for assimilation. The last sentence seems to plead for inter-marriage, with an argument that Bismarck occasionally used: "Race mixture is not only biologically highly desirable, but, in the case of the daughters of the very rich Jews, financially even more so."

Thirty or forty Jewish families are announced among the 18,478 who are being assisted by the Relief and Aid Society. These are mostly Slavic Jews, because German Jews consider themselves ...

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Illinois Staats-Zeitung -- April 15, 1872

The Jews here numbered 15,000 souls at the last census and are probably constantly increasing.

The now existing Jewish communities contain only a small part of the American residents. The Kehiloth Anshe Maariv, (community of men of the West), founded its synagogue in 1851; the Kehiloth Benai Scholem, (of peace), in 1854. The Sinai community was organized on June 20, 1861; the Zion community, September 20, 1864; the North Side community in 1867, and in the last three years, three orthodox communities with Polish rites have been formed, on Clark Street between Harrison and Polk streets, (the former hall of the Union Turn Association), on Pacific Avenue near Harrison Street and since a few months, on Milwaukee Avenue.

Jewish aid societies exist in sufficient numbers and are strongly supported in their activities by the United Jewish Aid Association. All through the United States is spread a kind of Jewish national association for charity, education and entertainment, which is known under the name of "Benai Berith," (Sons of the Covenant). It counts here five lodges, namely: Ramah, (since June, 1857); Hillel, since June, 1865; Moviz Meyer, since 1867; Sovereignty, since 1869; and Jonathan, since 1870.

Among the associations aiming exclusively at entertainment the Standard Club and the Phoenix Club on the South Side, and Harmonia on the West Side, may be mentioned.

The five have paralized the life of clubs and associations on the North Side for an indefinite time.

Up to 1850, there were in Chicago almost none but German Jews. Since then, however, a strong influx from Polish districts has taken place, so that the number on both sides may be about equal. This is worth mentioning in so far as the German Jews adhere to the reformed; the Polish Jews to the orthodox rite. For the last ten years the "reform" has unceasingly professed so that finally all German communities and even the biggest Polish community have been reformed by the abolition of most of the antiquated customs and religious practices. The most thorough changes were made by Dr. Chronik in the Sinai Community.

The Chicago Jews have found their place everywhere in business. However, in social life, they have remained almost completely separated from Germans and Americans and live completely among their own kind.

The Jews here numbered 15,000 souls at the last census and are probably constantly increasing. The now existing Jewish communities contain only a small part of the American residents. The ...

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[Association documents] -- June 29, 1873

A communication of Dr. Kohler on the subject of attending the Cincinnati Conference, called for the 8th of July, 1873 was read, and upon motion, the same was accepted as the report of the Committee on Conference, to be acted upon.

For the reasons set forth in the report of the Committee, it was moved to decline taking an active part in the Cincinnati Conference, and that the resolution of last meeting to hold a special congregational meeting be rescinded.

A communication of Dr. Kohler on the subject of attending the Cincinnati Conference, called for the 8th of July, 1873 was read, and upon motion, the same was accepted as ...

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[Association documents] -- June 29, 1873

I have carefully read the Cincinnati Call for a Congregational Conference for the purpose of establishing a Jewish Theological Institute, and respectfully present to you my humble opinion upon the subject, according to my best judgement and conviction.

That we need an institution that teaches and authoritatively represents Judaism before the country at large, that promotes Jewish lore and learning, and educates our future rabbis and teachers, surely none doubts or denies, who has the interests of our religion and our people at heart. But about the necessary 2conditions and modes of establishing such an institution, certain differences must naturally prevail, emanating from the different views and conceptions of Judaism held by the various congregations and their leaders.

Take for instance the orthodox standpoint and you need not set up grand institutes on so large a scale. Provide for the studying youth a learned Talmudist, able to translate the Bible with its Hebrew commentaries, Talmud and Shulchan Aruch, in the English language. Let them be instructed by some professor of English literature and rhetoric, in or outside of the college. Let them graduate as doctors in some college, and have them acquire from any well known rabbi, their diploma as ordained rabbis. What need they more? Why should these candidates not be qualified to teach and to preach Judaism just as well as any Talmud student with his "Morcun" in the old country, where there were no Jewish Academies until recently?

But things have quite another aspect from the view of Progressive or the so called Reform Judaism. It is certainly not enough for the Reform Rabbi to have 3read the Bible in the original and to have traversed the vast ocean of Talmudical lore. You want him to know the history of the Bible through the various ages, climes and states of culture, the history of Judaism through all its phases and forms. You want him to have clear ideas of the growth and development of religion at large, and of the progressive stages of Judaism especially. You cannot be satisfied in having appointed as an expounder of Reform Judaism a man, who professes the twenty-four Books of the Bible to be the only true revelation of God and "the Talmud to be the only legal and obligatory interpretation of the law," except you belie and betray yourselves and the holy mission of Israel at the present age.

You will not promote the spiritual welfare of your children, by trusting them to a teacher, who, well versed as he may be in the Hebrew and the Catechism, is wanting in sound principles of treating the miracles, traditions and national laws of the Bible, in accordance with our mature knowledge of the laws of nature and the human mind. Nor will those rabbis truly preserve the Jewish identity, 4who, being the leaders of Reform Congregations, still clinging to the letter of the Bible, forbid to eat unclean meat, or command to believe that God commenced his creations on Sunday, formed sun, moon, and stars on Wednesday, and rested on Saturday. Wherefore alone that day, whether really observed or violated by all, must be kept as the Jewish day of the Lord?

Judaism is larger than that. It comprehends the Levitical law as well as the religion of humanity taught by the Prophets, the philosophical doctrines of Philo the Greek, of Maimonides and Ben Cabiral and the mystical lore of Isaac Luria, the narrow minded letter worship of Joseph Caro and the critical views of Ibu Ezra. Judaism is an historically progressive religion and must be conceived and taught as such. But the history of Judaism is not written yet. Jewish science is but of yesterday. The man, who created the Jewish Science, is yet among the living. Jewish Theology exists but in hidden sources and in fragmentary outlines. There is no way cleared up, no guide given to aid the traveler through the sandy desert of the Talmud. A few historical and 5biographical books and sketches, written in the German language, are all the help in store for the student. Neither is the Bible literature cultivated yet by Jewish scholars of modern time, as to proffer its ripe fruits to the hungry searcher after truth. You must apply to the works of Christian professors, written in German, for any thorough instruction in the Bible. So is the whole Jewish science, comprehended by very few but a crude, chaotic mass, still awaiting conception and creative minds, capable of moulding and systematizing it. It is therefore not so easy a task, as people commonly think, to train and raise our future rabbis. It requires an immense store of learning to enable a man for this high task. Such men are not at all in abundance in Germany, far less in this country. Indeed the establishment of a Theological Institute would lay claim upon all the rabbis of German university education to cooperate, that a true success might be secured.

It would certainly require the great metropolitan city as its seat, on account of the best and the most complete colleges and libraries, which needs must be at the students hand.

Now considering all this, I personally do not think the time has come already for the erection of such a great edifice. Where is our youth desirous to devote their lives to the holy vocation of Jewish ministry? Our children lack as yet, that holy zeal and enthusiasm, that fervent pride of professing and preclaiming Judaism. Old Judaism they never learned to revere, and modern, enlightened Judaism has not yet taken deep roots in the Jewish hearts and homes. Neither is the Religious school, in its present state the right nursery for our future rabbis. Besides, we want English books, good and appropiate Bible versions, in short, a Jewish American Literature, for the spiritual nourishment of the studying youth. Not even the first foundation can be laid yet for the great educational institution in question. If I were to tell my private opinion. I would say, "Get, for the present, your rabbis an teachers from abroad. Import them from Germany until they are familiarized, more and more, with American language and customs, until they have harmoniously blended and moulded the free inquiring German mind with the practical and easy American form. Concerning the puplis, who desire to follow the vocation of Ministry, send them, whenever you have any, to Germany." They cannot do without a 7thorough knowledge of German. They can never become accomplished scholars, without being able to study the German writings at their disposal. Still, notwithstanding this, I would at any time, gladly welcome the organization of a Theological Institute, if I should anticipate a real success. No doubt, a Jewish College, well managed by competent and trustworthy spiritual leaders would reflect much credit and esteem upon our people, neither would it fail to have the most elevating and ennobling influence upon our internal affairs.

But to come to the point - is the college, taken in view by the Gincinnati Call, such as to arouse well founded hopes and expectations of such nature? No, Gentlemen. 1. There you see a boundary line drawn between the Western congregations of American Reform Judaism. 2. There you see united five Cincinnati Congregations of very different opinions and shades, making effort to centralize Judaism of the West for some told and untold purposes, of which the foundations of a college is to form but a part. Mark well, the word Reform 8or Progress is not even mentioned in the paper! 3. There you find the whole management of such a great educational institution, laid entirely in the hands of laymen, noblehearted gentlemen indeed, but unlearned and not capable of selecting the right men for such high and important positions as professors and directors of a Jewish College, without the guidance of their spiritual leaders, while even these, whose influence upon them in this project is otherwise sufficiently known, are for some reason passed by in silence.

Regarding all this I respectfully recommend to you, gentlemen of the board, to decline to take active part in said conference, giving the following reasons: 1. We heartily acknowledge your undertaking to establish a Jewish Theological Institute to be a very noble and praise-worthy one, deserving for itself every credit and support; but we feel surprised to see you call for a conference for the purpose tendered to the congregations of the West and the South and not extended to the East. Such a geographical separation we can by no means approve 9of, nor do we apprehend any benificial result for the cause of Progressive Judaism to derive from it, whereas we willingly offer our best help and effort to cooperate with all the Reform Congregations of the country in establishing a college, whenever time and circumstances seem to be proper and favorable. 2. We are not in favor of placing the organization and administration of an institution of so eminently scientific nature, in the hands of laymen, who, in all their actions, depend upon their spiritual guides, which we expect to see, the name of those respective spiritual leaders put at the head of the undertaking and the extent of their influence made very conspicuous and distinct. 3. We reject the formation of a union of congregations for the purpose of preserving the Jewish identity, or some other purpose of impalpable character, because we cannot help fore-seeing danger and obstacles in the way of Progressive Judaism from such organizations. We most fervently pray for union and concord among all the congregations of the East and the West, yet more we yearn and strive for true enlightenment and progress. The God of Israel is our uniting banner, and the true salvation of the human family - our scope.

Dr. K. Kohler.

To the President and the Trustees of the Sinai Congregation. Chicago, Illinois June 8, 1873 Gentlemen! I have carefully read the Cincinnati Call for a Congregational Conference for the purpose ...

[Association documents] -- November 04, 1873

A motion to address two letters to Dr. Kohler, one to ask him to inaugurate a Sunday Services, signed by all advocates of the same, and one signed by all the supporters of the Biblical Sabbath, to continue a Sabbath Service, a pledge for good attendance, and also a Resolution signed by all the members to assure the Reverend Gentlemen of our confidence as our spiritual guide, withdrawn to bring the matter before the congregation.

A motion to address two letters to Dr. Kohler, one to ask him to inaugurate a Sunday Services, signed by all advocates of the same, and one signed by all ...

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Chicago Times -- July 07, 1874

A discourse by Dr. Adler, a Jewish clergyman, on Sunday, should attract some attention from its high-toned and broad liberality. He advised his co-religionists to give Christianity every possible respect, to avoid harsh and unkind criticisms of Christian dogmas, and to extend to the followers of that faith the same consideration and toleration which the Jewish believer wishes to be afforded to his own religion.

This is a veritable return of good for evil. No class of men has been so persecuted by so-called Christians as the Jews. For ages, the latter were regarded by the former as ligitimate objects of abhorence, contempt, despoiling, and persecution. Under the Old Testament teaching of an "eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," the Jews owe the Christian world a heavy debt of vengeance; but, this modern representative of the race shames the history of the Christian persecutors of his people, by inculcating the Christian sentiment of, "Love those who hate you." The sentiment not only shames the record of the treatment which Christian has extended to Jew, but it indicates a great advance in a people, who once hewed their progress through adjacent nations by Divine command, and who since have not had that bloody order countermanded. The savage code established under the Divine hierarchy, provided at the birth of the race, has never been repealed so far as the Jews are concerned.

It is, therefore, no small anomaly that, for centuries, Christianity, ostensibly a faith of love and toleration, has put to blush the most sanguinary commands of the Jewish code, while the Jews, with their bloody laws still in force, have placed themselves upon the true Christian ground of fraternal love and broad toleration.

A discourse by Dr. Adler, a Jewish clergyman, on Sunday, should attract some attention from its high-toned and broad liberality. He advised his co-religionists to give Christianity every possible respect, ...

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Chicago Tribune -- March 16, 1877

The recent reproduction of an article from the London Saturday Review upon "Jewish Nationality," with some local application of its statements, in The Chicago Tribune, has called forth some replies from Jewish citizens, who seem to apprehend that The Tribune may have some suspicion of Jewish patriotism. The most important of these communications is that of Dr. Kohler, printed in our last issue, which covers the ground so completely that a publication of the others is unnecessary. The Tribune has no exceptions to take to Dr. Kohler's eloquent declaration of the patriotism of the Jews; on the other hand, it is glad to receive the assurance from so competent an authority that, "should Daniel Deronda or Sir Moses Montefiore, the noble Jewish philanthropist, who, I am sure, sat to George Eliot for a portrait of her hero, even venture to call upon the Jews, either of America or of England, France, or Germany, to help him in restoring a Jewish Kingdom in Palestine, he would hardly find ten men to follow him." And again: "for a cosmopolitan freedom and true humanity, the Jews have ever since longed and prayed, whether believing in a personal Messiah, as the conservative English Jews, or adhering only to the kernel of the Messianic hope, disengaged from its national form, as Reformed Judaism in America most decidedly does."

These two extracts state the case perhaps as strongly as it can be done, and they convey in a positive statement what was meant to be implied in the summary of the Review article and its application. The idea meant to be conveyed was, that while the Jews hold offices of honor and trust, while they are patriotic, as a reference to our late war will show, while they are good citizens and perform all the duties of citizens, and while they are stricter observers of the law and figure less frequently in criminal records than almost any other nationality, still they are not so completely absorbed into the body politic as to be unrecognizable.

They retain their nationality. It stands out clearly and distinctly. In becoming part and parcel of the American nation, they are still the Jewish people or Jewish nation. They suffer no loss of identity or character. This is the historical phenomenon, and it is as a phenomenon that we are disposed to regard it. Probably no other people of equal numbers could accept a citizenship and perform all its duties with the same patriotism and faith that characterizes those to the manner born, and not lose its identity altogether. If our critics, therefore, are disposed to discuss this as a phenomenon, it might not be unprofitable; but, so far as Jewish patriotism is concerned, we have no discussion to make with them.

The whole case seems to be in Dr. Kohler's nutshell of "cosmopolitan freedom." At the same time there can be no doubt that it was this very idea that some day the Jewish people would migrate to the Holy Land and set up an independent nation that has given people the general impression of their being "sojourners," - a feeling which has been emphasized by the reluctance of the Jews to becoming landholders. All this has now changed, especially in this country, and we are glad to have Dr. Kohler's emphatic indorsement of the fact.

The recent reproduction of an article from the London Saturday Review upon "Jewish Nationality," with some local application of its statements, in The Chicago Tribune, has called forth some replies ...

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Illinois Staats-Zeitung -- March 22, 1877

The 19th century's blissful cultural progress of greet inventions and discoveries, had a special influence upon the Jewish people. The results of this powerful change are of such significance that the history of nations and states can not disregard it. The common ties which unified the Jewish people ever since their first national suffering up to and including this century, are being loosened through progress and the spirit of humanity.

The Jew has a keen instinct to take care of his own benefits and a great ability in shaking off the demon as soon as there is no opposition to this tendency. How much of a success there was, is shown plainly in the assimilation of the Jews and various religious sects. The statement of the Chicago Tribune, that the American Jew as well as the Jews of other countries, do not profess any patriotism for their adopted country, is greatly incorrect.

Both, the Chicago Tribune and the London Saturday Review, point out that the Jew is especially gifted in some of the arts and sciences, but this does not mean that capability can be considered as a characteristic inclination of the race, but is a natural outcome of conditions. It is not surprising that, for instance, the cleverest physicians can be found among the Jews, because students of the Mosaic confession previous to the year of 1848, were not allowed to enter into the pedagogical or legal profession.

The Jewish student could choose only between the doctor or rabbi. No Jew was a farmer until recently, for they were considered people without a country and for the most part, were regarded and suffered as people with a right for settlement, but forbidden to call mother earth their own.

The absolute equality of the Jew with believers of other faiths will tend to lessen the apparent differences and then the time may come when the old Jewish prophecy will be fulfilled! "Bajomim hahen jihehe Addanai echot," meaning, (Some day all of us will have one cloak and one God.)

1. Disinclination of the Jew for agriculture, even in the countries where they enjoy over a long period of time, all the privileges of the rightful citizen.

2. The Jews of only six countries regard themselves as nationally attached, this is the case in Germany, France, England, Italy, Denmark, The United States, and possibly in Portugal.

In East-Europe, Asia and Africa, they consider themselves as a special nation. Their complaint of being regarded a special race is groundless as long as they are proud of the purity of the race. Such distinctions can be wiped out by centuries only, and then not through laws, but through intermarriage. Into this race question, the Jewish religion has mistakingly been drawn, but has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

To the Publisher of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung: The 19th century's blissful cultural progress of greet inventions and discoveries, had a special influence upon the Jewish people. The results of this ...